


A Certain Disregard for the Rules

by marawelsh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Con Artists, Drabble, Friendship, Hogwarts, Life day, Mystery, Romance, Slytherin, Squibs, WIP, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 01:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19241125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marawelsh/pseuds/marawelsh
Summary: First-year Mara Welsh puts her Slytherin cunning to good use earning enough galleons to afford her Hogwarts education. But a strange discovery puts her on a collision course with the one other student who could ruin everything.





	A Certain Disregard for the Rules

Mara gingerly slid open the latch, and eased the lid of the tank open just wide enough to reach inside with two hands. The grimy toad let out a loud CROAK and she froze, listening for any sign that it woke the sleeping students. Nobody stirred. She supposed she had the excitement of this morning’s Quidditch match to thank for tiring them all out so thoroughly.

She lowered her hands into the tank and grasped the toad firmly around the middle, pressing her thumbs into its lungs to discourage any further protestations. This was a family toad, she could tell. Not only because no self-respecting student owned a toad if they had any say in the matter, but also because of the way it hung limply in her arms, resigned to her manhandling after years of being flung about by exuberant young witches and wizards. She allowed herself a small smile - family pets made both the smoothest kidnaps, and the highest rewards.

Mara lifted the toad into her waiting knapsack, and fastened it securely. With a final glance around at the green drapes concealing the sleeping fourth years, she slipped out the door and scurried off to conceal her hostage.

She blamed society. More specifically, this insular Hogwarts environment. It was all well and good for the students from all-wizarding families, whose parents had saved for their Hogwarts funds since they were born and had no trouble sending galleons for school books and parchment and shoelaces that don’t fray at the ends. After her three older brothers turned out squibs, her parents had assumed Mara would display no more magic than a doormat, and budgeted accordingly. By the time they watched Mara bounce unharmed from a two-story building, it was too late.

She had accepted her position at Hogwarts under the assumption that a witch in the family would be more help than the part-time earnings of her three brothers combined, only to discover that she was strictly prohibited from using any magic outside of school whatsoever. And even if part-time jobs were a thing amongst Hogwarts students, which they clearly weren’t, she wasn’t allowed to visit Hogsmeade until third year. So here she was, stuck in the castle, every magnificent arch and golden sconce a reminder that all this self indulgence was leeching cash from her struggling family and as yet giving nothing in return. That is, until she hatched her current pet-napping scheme.

Mara tucked the toad into the hollow behind the portrait of the grumbling centaur. She fished a handful of pellets out of her knapsack and threw them to the tabby cat, which was prowling restlessly back and forth in the tiny space. Another day and she would ‘find’ the tabby with or without a reward - it was clearly fed up with its tight quarters, and animal cruelty was not her game. If anything, her apparent knack for finding lost pets had given her the reputation of having whatever the animal equivalent of a green thumb was. A fur thumb? She grinned at her own stupid joke as a tiny yellow snake wound its way around her actual thumb. An unauthorised pet belonging to snooty second year from a particularly wealthy family - it would fetch enough to cover a new robe, if she played her cards right.

She slid the snake off gently and gave the small zoo a quick once-over with a scouring charm, before pushing the portrait closed again. Mara paused for a moment, listening intently to her surroundings. Nothing but the gentle creaks and groans of the castle at night greeted her, sounds that once seemed so eerie but were now a familiar presence after so many nighttime wanderings. Reassured and suddenly longing for her pillow, she started back toward the common room.

But just as Mara approached the stone entrance, a glint of something at the far end of the passage caught her eye. She eyed her watch wearily - there was very little time left until Filch was liable to make his patrol of this part of the castle. She should head straight to her dormitory if she were playing it safe. The very thought made her scoff - safe? When has she ever had the luxury of playing anything safe? Besides, a stray sickle was nothing to turn your nose up at. Resolved, Mara scurried down the passage as quickly as she dared.

But to her dismay, the glint wasn’t coming from a dropped coin. As she reached down to examine it, she realised it was actually the tip of a shiny belt buckle sticking out from behind the largest (and arguably ugliest) gargoyle. Strange that the house elves hadn’t returned it to its owner... it must, she thought, have been dropped there recently, maybe as recently as tonight. Probably left by some frisky students out on a midnight tryst. She was just about to hurry off in case those students were still around, when she noticed there was more. Mara tugged at a corner of fabric, and out fell an entire set of Slytherin house robes. They had been extremely well hidden - hidden, that is, not dropped or strewn or cast aside as by a lustful student sneaking out with their date, but carefully rolled and tucked firmly behind the gargoyle’s ugly hump. For what? Why on earth would someone stash a set of robes here with the entrance to the common room feet away?

Suddenly the heavy clunk of footsteps on the stone staircase snapped Mara back to the present. She hurriedly bunched the robes up, lashed them tightly with the belt, and crammed the whole bundle back behind the gargoyle. She then scampered toward the common room entrance as quickly as she dared, and slipped inside just in time to avoid detection.

As she collapsed into her cosy bed moments later, Mara spent her final moments of consciousness puzzling over what she had just found. Maybe a prank, she thought. But something about how carefully and deliberately the robes had been hidden tugged at the corner of her mind. Usually the victims of pranks found their belongings strung from the rafters in the Owlery or partially flushed down a toilet. Not expertly stowed at the end of a dark corridor where hardly anyone would be around to witness their humiliation IF they recovered them at all. But if not a prank, then what? Unfortunately Mara’s sleepy brain wasn’t quite up to the challenge, and as the evening’s efforts finally caught up to her, she drifted into a deep and comfortable sleep.


End file.
